Determined
by donnag76
Summary: Pepper's thoughts as she waits on Tony to arrive from Afghanistan. Companion piece to "One Voice." Reviews appreciated, but, please, be nice. :) Again...I don't own 'em, I just like to play with 'em occasionally.


Determined

Under normal circumstances, Pepper Potts was the picture of composure. One could not be as successful with Tony Stark and be prone to fly apart easily. However, _nothing _about the past three months was even close to "normal circumstances." Checking her watch for the tenth time in as many minutes, she wondered what could be delaying the flight. Usually, she would have _known_ what had made everything late or, rather, _who_, but even Tony Stark could not control the United States Air Force. Something _must_ be wrong. _"Oh, please,"_ she silently prayed. _"Please don't let anything be wrong."_

She willed the tears burning her eyes not to fall. Pepper Potts _did not_ cry in public. Every day for the last three months, she had cried, but it had been when she was safely in private. Too many people were watching. To the ones looking to her for support and assurance, she needed to be strong. For the ones circling like vultures waiting on her to crack, she simply would not give them the satisfaction. More than all this, Tony had trusted her to make sure everything would be alright when he returned.

When the news first broke about his disappearance, she had been too shocked to do anything. It wasn't until she walked into Tony's workshop that Pepper completely broke down. Despite all of the news reports, or sometimes lack thereof, she never let herself believe that he was gone for good. It became her personal project to make sure his Malibu mansion was kept in order, everything from collecting the mail to stocking the refrigerator, ready for him to just walk in and assume normal life when he came back...and he _would_ come back. Many times, Pepper thought she was the _only_ one who thought Tony was still alive, but she never gave up hope. There were days she cried because she was scared for her boss. Other days, it was when she thought she absolutely _could not_ take the pressure of it all anymore. Then, one day, she realized she cried because she _missed him._

That had been quite a revelation. Why she would miss the man who it seemed made it his life's goal to make her life as complicated as possible was beyond her, but she did. Sure, he had his quirks, but there were a lot of things about Tony Stark only Pepper got to see. She had never seen anyone so smart in her life. His mind was working constantly. While it made things difficult at times, it was never boring. One product of this was his ability to veer off into a completely unrelated direction without warning. This led to many interesting talks between the two of them. She remembered one "spontaneous conversation" while reviewing for a budget meeting not long after she began working for him.

_"How tall are you, Potts?"_

_ "What?"_

_ "In those heels. You're what, about 5'9"? 5'10"?"_

_ "Uh, I guess. Something like that, but what does this have to do..."_

_ "So, 5'10" and 4'9" of that is legs. I like that."_

Pepper couldn't stop the grin the memory brought. That was her Tony, never one to hide what he was thinking. Sometimes, he was so blatantly honest, she wondered if there was any type of filter between his mind and his mouth. He wasn't trying to be offensive, just honest. Yet, this was the same man Pepper witnessed take a board member's laptop that was experiencing problems, disassemble it, fix the problem, reassemble it, and return it to its owner, all without breaking his train of thought or interrupting his presentation. When she asked him about it later, Tony's only reply was, "C'mon, Pepper. I've been doing that since I was, like, 5. It wasn't even much of a challenge." Again, not boasting. Just Tony being incredibly honest.

Somewhere in the middle of this ordeal, he became more to her than just her boss or even a friend. This was why she hadn't freaked out when she realized she had just referred to him in her mind as "her Tony." That's what he was now...her Tony. Pepper could pinpoint when she felt this change. She woke up from a dead sleep calling his name...with a sense that he _needed_ her she could not explain. She stumbled to her kitchen shaking so much she could barely hold her glass of water, when she realized exactly how frightened she was she would never see him again. It wasn't just the issue of her employment. While she may not have Tony's ego, Pepper knew she had the résumé to get a job anywhere she chose. She was, after all, Pepper Potts, the woman behind the man. She'd had her share of job offers in the past, but she turned them down, saying she didn't want to leave Stark. But now, she had to be perfectly honest. She couldn't bring herself to leave _Tony_. It wasn't just that she found him attractive. Any female with a pulse could tell he was every bit as good-looking as he thought he was. The truth was, he fascinated her, Pepper had read up on her boss before her tenure at Stark Industries began. She wanted to find out what made this guy tick. The more she found out, the more she wanted to know. It wasn't until she heard a conversation between him and J.A.R.V.I.S. in his workshop she wasn't supposed to hear that Pepper began to understand.

Needing his signature on some employment contracts, she had let herself in. J.A.R.V.I.S., busy with Tony, had not announced her. He was so engrossed with working on his hot rod, he didn't notice her.

_"I do not believe the problem lies in the piston make-up sir..."_

_"It's my birthday, J.A.R.V.I.S. Humor me."_

_"It is after midnight. It has not been your birthday for the past 97 minutes."_

_"Thanks for the reminder." Tony turned the piece of the Roadster over in his hand. "If it wasn't for the party half the country gets invited to, no one would care it was my birthday at all. Exploded view of the right side."_

_"There was _one_ gift sir. The one Miss Potts left."_

_"You're right, J." Tony laid aside the piston and wiped his hands on a shop rag. He tossed the greasy rag on the counter and went to retrieve the gift box he had opened earlier in the evening. "No one but Pepper would care. She cares, unlike the other eleven million people I've known in my life, about _me_...not my money or my IQ or what I can do for her. She _gets_ me. That's why I gotta keep her around, J.A.R.V.I.S. I need someone like that. I need _her_."  
_

Rocked by what she heard, Pepper decided the contracts could wait and she let herself out. People had used him for as long as he could remember for what they could get out of him. While he may act as if he could care less, Pepper _knew _Tony Stark had a heart and, more than he would _ever_ admit, it had been broken. She decided that day, she _would not_ be one of those people. Behind that façade was a living, breathing person, a person who may very well have no one else on whom he could truly depend but her. _This_ was the Tony Stark she cried for all those nights.

"Are you okay, Pepper?" Happy asked. "You look like you've been crying."

"It must be the sun," she lied. Pepper took one more look at her watch. Three days ago, just when she thought she had cried all the tears she could cry, Rhodey's phone call interrupted a staff meeting. Not knowing what to expect, she took the call in Tony's office. When she heard the simple message, "We found him. He's alive," fresh tears came. These were happy tears of relief, though. The other details, something about shrapnel and surgery and Jericho missiles all became background noise. The important information was "He's alive." Everything else could be dealt with later, whatever the fall-out may be. They would handle it together. She'd been by him for everything else and she wasn't leaving now.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the far-off buzz of engine propellers. Shading her eyes with her hand, Pepper scanned the skies until she saw the outline of a plane in the distance. Precisely eight minutes later by her watch, the huge aircraft coasted to a halt on the runway. Pepper took a deep breath and drew herself up to her full height, all 5 feet 10 inches in the heels she knew her boss liked. She didn't release the breath until the door opened and she saw the dark-suited figure in the wheelchair at the top of the ramp. He was here. _Then_ she smiled.


End file.
